Listening Guide

The Work

Key: C major. Tempo: Innig, fliessend (tender, flowing) (fliessend does not appear in the orchestral score) Time Signature: 3/4 with numerous changes. Form: simple strophic form Orchestration: According to the original orchestral score, published by C. F. Kahnt, this song was not orchestrated by Mahler, but by an employee of the publisher, Max Puttmann. Many commentators have criticized the orchestration as flawed in details that Mahler would not have missed.

Listening Guide

The Work

Key: F major in piano version; E-flat major in orchestral version (with modulations into A-flat and then C major and minor.
[N.B., the volume of the Critical Edition of Mahler's works prepared under the auspices of the International Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft, Vienna, devoted to the orchestral version of four Rückert-Lieder includes 2 orchestral versions of this song, one in F and the other in E-flat. (See Band XIV, Teilband 4)].

Tempo:Äussert langsam und zurückhaltend (extremely slow and held back)Time Signature: 4/4 (with one measure of 2/4).Form: through-composed but with three distinct sections, the second of which contrasts somewhat with the others.